The latest and perhaps realest step forward in the realm of lazy, mouse-free interfaces arrives courtesy of John Underkoffler, who happened to be working in the MIT Media Lab when the producers of Minority Report came through looking for face-melting ideas from four decades in the future. They hired him and his idea, and after the years-long, caffeine-fueled sloppy intercourse of Hollywood and Silicon Valley, he and his company Oblong have emerged at the TED conference with an actual spatial operating system.

Mr. Underkoffler said this gesture technology was already being used in Fortune 50 companies, government agencies and universities, and he predicted that it would soon be available for consumers. “I think in five years’ time, when you buy a computer, you’ll get this,” he said.

In fact, consumers will get the first taste of gesture-based interfaces later this year. As The Times reported last month, Microsoft, Hitachi and PC makers are on the brink of rolling out game consoles, televisions and computers that use gestures to control the machines.

Since we found this on the Dell Motherboard.TV site, we’re assuming that this is also on Dell’s radar and that the question is no longer “IF” but “WHO” will come to market first with this technology?